Maelyn Sylmaris
Maelyn is one of the main characters and a member of The Vagabonds. She is a Warlock with The Seeker Patron. Appearance Maelyn Sylmaris is a tall, pale-skinned, orange-haired, orange-eyed, bespectacled half-elf. Maelyn often prefers to wear an outfit comprised of a white dress shirt, a light purple sweater vest, and beige dress pants. However, when engaging in business pertaining to the missions The Vagabonds undertake, she is more likely to be seen wearing her particularly elaborate light green and deeply dark blue robes adorned with several amulets and finely sewn patterns evoking the imagery of eyes. Personality From an outward perspective, she is a quiet, cautious, and inexpressive girl. Despite this, however, she is fully capable of expressing compassion towards others, even if only through a muted tone, as evidenced by her relationships with Alaska Culberson and Inocencia Anasia. And just as her other emotions are not easily readable, her internal feelings could mainly be described as intensely anxious, nervous, and fearful about practically everything she thinks about. Relationships Past * Yllawynn Sylmaris: Mother. Maelyn had a generally positive relationship with her mother and looked up to her as a role model. However, once Maelyn failed to achieve the magical prowess that her mother possessed, their relationship began to grow more distant as she was led down darker paths to live up to her ideals. * Maelyn's Father: Maelyn knows practically nothing about her father aside from being told that he was a human commoner. Nonetheless, she harbors a level of distaste for her idea of him as he was not around for her mother or for her. The Vagabonds * Alaska Culberson: Friend. When Maelyn first met Alaska, she was largely indifferent to her as she was with the rest of The Vagabonds. However, over the course of their travels together as a team, Maelyn has come to rely on Alaska as someone she can look to for emotional support. She also values Alaska not only as a friend but as a valuable member of the team, due to her nursing skills as well as her ability to understand and negotiate with Richard Arker. * Akira: Akira was one of the original members of The Vagabonds, although Maelyn didn’t have the opportunity to know him in any capacity before he suffered a mental breakdown during Chapter 1: Cowboy Bebop, and as such she didn’t outgrow the indifference toward him that characterized her feelings towards the rest of the crew in their early travels. * Inocencia Anasia: Romantic Interest. Upon their original meeting, Maelyn did not have much interest in Noelle. However, as Noelle began to expose more of her odd abilities and inclinations to the rest of The Vagabonds, Maelyn’s intrigue was piqued. Not only by the supposed existence of a goddess that could feed Noelle information, but also by the strange rituals she partook in. Maelyn began to see somewhat of a reflection of herself in Noelle, however it grew to be somewhat of a frightening thought as Maelyn contemplated that perhaps Noelle was the kind of person that Maelyn could become if she lost control of herself. A large majority of things came to a head during Chapter 1: Ashes to Ashes, when Noelle had been given the opportunity to read Maelyn’s personal tome and was also left alone with Maelyn for an extended period after she had stolen and returned the ship and allegedly forsook L’Via. After this point, Maelyn’s interest in Noelle began to manifest in a more confusing manner. Although Alaska had attempted to tell Maelyn that perhaps she had a ‘crush’ on the odd girl, things didn’t move forward until after the events of Chapter 2: M.I.A., when Noelle abruptly slept with Maelyn. Since this point, the relationship between Noelle and Maelyn has been rapidly changing, but as of Chapter 3: The Roundup, they had considered one another to be particularly ‘official’. * Ren Allsbrook: Acquaintance. Maelyn had found him particularly uninteresting and was largely indifferent to him as a member of the crew, which led to her disliking him for a period after the events of Chapter 2: Welcome Home. However, at the best of Noelle, Maelyn attempted to grow somewhat closer to him through the medium of combat, as it appeared to be Ren’s forte from Maelyn’s viewpoint. * Richard Arker: Conflicted Acquaintance. Maelyn had been consistently suspicious of Gardwin ever since The Vagabonds left Anadac and had begun attempting to spy on him to an extent after she was provided with his journal after the events of Chapter 1: Ashes to Ashes. However, she did not have reason to suspect ill will from him until the events of Chapter 2: Welcome Home, when Gardwin attempted to kill Noelle and remove Ren from the crew before being talked down by Alaska and Maelyn. Due to his secretive nature and apparent tendency to maliciously plot against the rest of the crew, Maelyn continued to have apprehensions about him. Backstory Maelyn was born into a noble bloodline, to an Elven mother and Human father. Her mother was a noble, but her father was a commoner, which meant that they were rather often not found in the same dwellings. She was, however, only raised by her mother in Elven society. She suffered the same feeling of feeling distant from her culture that many half-elves did, however, and yet, it wasn’t as if she could fit into human culture any better. She lacked the innate magical potential that many elves were born with, leaving her to feel distant from their culture, and yet she couldn't really fit in with humans either. Of course, it wasn't as if she was discriminated against, but it was clear that many others looked at her as an oddity, even if the unusual circumstances of her birth did nothing to rid herself of her privilege. Maelyn’s birthplace that she now considered the closest facsimile to a home, Sylva Alora, was adaptive and accepting of her status despite its reputation for being somewhat xenophobic and closed. Moreso than some, anyway. Perhaps it was social progress, or perhaps it was just the elves clinging to the rules of their society regardless of their personal feelings. And yet, figuring out this distinction meant very much to Maelyn in her earlier years. It didn’t much matter to her if she was treated like a noble regardless – she had the constant feeling that the actions of her acquaintances betrayed their feelings. And so, seeing no other way to be sure of her situation, she felt it a necessity to try and attune herself with Elven culture, even if it would be ultimately difficult without the innate abilities other full-blooded Elves possessed. From a young age, she had attempted to train in the magical arts, but despite the many years she spent trying to ignite the spark that she believed to sleep in her Elven blood and awaken some sort of magical prowess, she could never do it. But she was undeterred. She was convinced that surely there was some way she could gain these abilities, even if she had to find a far different way to do so. While she continued the guise of attempting to train in the art of magic despite being rather certain that she was simply incapable, she began discreetly researching the possibility of different forms of magic. If she couldn't perform the kind of magic that Elves were used to, maybe there was some other form of magic that she was attuned to. And yet, despite her best efforts, she could find no such thing. That was, however, until she began researching the kinds of magic that others had apparently considered 'forbidden'. And so, while trying to keep her activities discreet, she began to narrow her research into these forbidden magics. Although, as she would come to understand, this was more commonly known as occult magics. She found it silly that people would try to hide this kind of knowledge, and she slowly began to find herself obsessed with this forbidden wisdom. So, as she grew to further understand just quite what she was trifling with, she grew more secretive, but also far, far more interested. What began as mere research transformed over the course of a few years into attempting to replicate some of the rituals described in these founts of knowledge. As much as Maelyn may have continued to convince herself that she was still working towards her original goal at this point, it had begun to be rather apparent that her goal was now far different than it was when she began her search for power. Even if it was by no means an ‘evil’ goal regardless of the subject of her interest, her gradual growing interest in this new font of knowledge dragged her further and further from the path of her original intent – to fit into her society. Now, one would suppose that she hardly cared. Perhaps this new turn of events was a sign that she had found a true purpose for herself, rather than trying to align herself with the interests of others. While it became apparent to some that she was engaging in suspicious activities, she did well to hide her tracks. After all, even though she had no ill will with this kind of magic, she was sure that if someone were to find it they would sorely misunderstand the intent. She engaged in a long series of failed rituals that were described in the books she found to summon magic from some sort of other plane. It would've sounded ridiculous to her before she'd found herself obsessed with these things, but at this point she was quite open to the ideas it proposed. Unfortunately for her, however, she wasn't quite prepared for what a successful summoning ritual would entail. In her first success in conducting a ritual to commune with this different form of 'magic', she found her mind glimpsing into a bizarre scene. A writhing and contorting mass of discordant entities, the forms of which were changing with every single moment that passed, flesh and metal coursing through gaseous clouds that bounced arcs of raw energy between them, shifting the properties of everything they touched and giving birth to colossal shapeless monsters that tore through each other and were consumed within that same instant. And yet, she could only see it for a mere moment, before she found herself sent spiraling back to reality and left in a near catatonic state for hours afterwards. She was never quite the same after that. And yet, after that bizarre encounter, her success with her research and execution of these occult arts grew more and more frequent, and she found herself glimpsing back into this bizarre plane and trying to understand what it meant, or how she could use it. This world she had seemed to find was practically pulsing with raw magic, after all, so surely there was some way she could harness it. And as she continued to try and find the answer of how to do such a thing, she grew more and more reclusive, keeping to herself. As it would happen, she finally began to figure out how to conduct rituals to try and draw energy from this strange place to mimic the effects of magic, with the help of notes from those who had apparently tried to do the same before her. And yet...even though she now found herself possessing what she had set out to obtain, it was in a form that would distance her from her peers just as much as it would have to simply not have magic in the first place. Possibly moreso, even. The success of her new path had led her quite far astray from her original, in fact. She was no further to integrating herself and achieving a ‘social life’ as she was when she began. And even though she felt that she had found something far more important…it left a rather empty feeling inside of her. But, worse than that, she couldn’t find it in herself to truly care. After all, it’s not like she had fallen to evil, or been engulfed by chaos. Who cared if she couldn’t ‘fit in’, if she had something exponentially more valuable than that ever could’ve been? And yet…even though she tried to push that thought into the back of her mind, there just was no way of getting rid of it. But, as she ruminated on the unfortunate results of her toiling, she thought that surely there was a way she could put this to use nonetheless. Just as wizards and sorcerers and some-such used their powers to serve the world, maybe she could find a way to do the same. Perhaps there was some way that she could be just as useful as her peers, or maybe even more than them. Perhaps she could bring positive change with this forbidden power that no one else could and delve deeper into the knowledge that would be imparted by the arts other magic users were too afraid to trifle with, even if she had to entrench herself further and sever even more ties with the world she’d hidden from to bring it about. It wasn’t a particularly long time before Maelyn heard about a rather interesting figure that went by the name of Gardwin. Apparently, he was looking for a group of willing adventurers to assist him in some endeavor to go ‘beyond the stars’ or something. It was rather convenient that his claim would sound exceptionally insane to most people, as this made it rather easy for Maelyn to secure herself a place in this group. He may have been as insane as everyone thought he was, but if he wasn’t, she needed to know. After all, if she was going to find the origins and meaning of this strange power she had harnessed, she wasn’t going to find it on Anadac. Perhaps everything outside the planet was this bizarre Ethereum, and Anadac was merely a mortal plane that it encapsulated. Perhaps it wasn’t, and it was merely a part of what was out there. Or perhaps it wasn’t either of those things. And yet, even if what she found wasn’t going to be what she intended to look for…she still needed to know. It was quite convenient as well that her upbringing as a noble and experience with hiding her lifestyle left her with a considerable acting ability. After all, she wasn’t the most stable of people, although an insane conspiracy theorist might not mind that – she still needed to pretend as though she was just as calm and disciplined as her status would imply. One could argue that this manifested into somewhat of a multiple personality disorder, even though it was merely her true personality and her fake one coinciding. She had become exceptionally used to ‘pretending’, so much so that even she herself may have thought of it as her true self. And yet, that didn’t mean she could always keep her truest self from coming out, even if she was smart enough to release herself from her façade in her own privacy on most occasions. A short time had passed before Maelyn saw a direct response from her hirer, in the form of an all-expenses-paid transport to his residence, along with the few others that had taken his bait. It took her quite far from home, although it wasn’t like it mattered much to her. Her home was her own mind and nothing more, and even that was questionable at times. But that didn’t keep her from taking a great many of the belongings from her home with her, most of all a very particular book that she held very dear to herself, as it was not only a book of ritual instruction for interacting with the Ethereum, but also a diary of sorts. The transport didn’t take long, even though her home and this Gardwin’s home were considerably far apart. But, before she reached his residence, she was also provided with a limousine, apparently paid for by Gardwin, to complete the journey. And, interestingly enough, as she slid into the rather luxurious car, there were 3 other strangers there too. Trivia * Maelyn's original design was based on an image of character Daisy Eisenreid by artist Derek Hetrick. Category:Vagabonds Category:Player Characters